Alternative Roadbed for unseen areas

[cruikshank]

We need to lay quite a bit of roadbed for sound deadening purposes on a club layout.  This will be in unseen staging areas. It seems wastefull to use Homabed or Cork for this.  It would also be easier to lay one solid piece under the 4 tracks than individual roadbed.  What are some reccomendations for alternate material for this?  Thanks,  Dave

[thor]

Some carpet shops sell an underlay that looks like lots of little bits of different colored foam rubber in sheet form, its quite cheap and an excellent sound deadener and is easily cut with strong scissors or a craft knife.

[dbaker48]

Thor,

I have been wondering about that.  We just re-carpeted our living room and had extra padding, also thought about using that as an alternative to homosite.  Works pretty good, eh?  Going to give that a try !!! 

[Anonymous]

cruik,
The reason to use Homasote everywhere is it provides a sub-roadbed that deadens sound AND is rigid enough to hold screws (if you are using screws to secure your track).

Screws and nails transfer the track vibrations to the sub-roadbed, homasote (or ceiling tiles) are rigid sound deadening materials.  You could also use dense (pink or blue) foam insulation boards.

Homasote is easily cut into strips using a jig saw, table saw, or even a hand held rip saw.  When using Homasote I cut it into strips about 1 to 1.5 inches wider than that track/ballast, this provides enough space to secure other materials that do not need to be sound deadening for scenery.  I would not recommend using Homasote in sheets on a layout, for that it is quite expensive.  For town bases and other scenery bases, I would recommend like thickness plywood or foam sheets.  For my large layout I am planing on using 1/4 inch plywood over the framing, then 2 inch foam sheets for the subbase, then homasote for the track sub-roadbed, then cork to raise the ties off the sub-roadbed, then secure the track to the cork temporarily using screws, then ballast between the rails, the glue from the ballast should secure the track enough that the screws can be removed.  The homasote will be attached to the foam boards using construction adheasive.  I am even wondering if the homasote is necessary...

I do not plan on climbing all over my layout, I will have access panels built in so I can get to the far reaches of the layout.  Also, everything under the mountains will be open so I don't have to worry about that area either...

Hope this helps.

[trainbrain]

Accoustical ceiling tiles work good and they are inexpensive and easy to work with.

[Anonymous]

And.... if you ask for some damaged ones, you can get them for about $1/ea for a 2x4ft tile at one of the big box home improvement centers.

Lisa

[trainbrain]

That's right!.  I did that at the Home Depot where they sell SINGLE pieces, 2' X 4'. Just look for the chipped or broken pieces and they'll diccount them, at least 50%.  Lowes, however, only sells cases, not singles, at least here in the Granite State.

[Anonymous]

Brian,
If you seek out the store manager at Lowes and tell them what you are doing and ask them to hold any damaged tiles and you will gladly pay 50% of the per sheet cost, I bet they will work with you... I've actually been offered pieces for free (not near full sheets, just pieces)